Tag: live music

Anberlin. One of those bands that I was introduced to in high school but never came to enjoy until college. And then honestly, after their second album I never really got around to their newer music. I don’t think I’ve ever classified them as a favorite, oh sure they were probably on the list of bands I liked on Facebook circa 2006, but they were never in heavy rotation.

But, whenever one of their songs comes on Pandora I always sing along and know more of the words than I do for a lot of songs I listen to on the regular. Maybe it’s because they’re one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.

It was freshman year of college, and a friend of mine from down the hall had asked if I wanted to go a few days earlier. We bought tickets, but the day before we found out the show might not happen – the front-man had come down with the flu. Yet day of the show was still on so we walked down to what was then the Beta Bar (now the Engine Room?) and jammed in with everyone else. The band that opened for them, Showbread, was this insane screamo-noise rock mash-up band that performed with a fairly intoxicating energy. But then Anberlin came on. And even though they were touring in support of their (at the time) newest album, which I had only listened to once or twice and the fact that the lead singer had a 100+ degree fever they just absolutely killed it.

This is a guest post from the inimitably impassioned Meghan. She’ll be bring us regular updates on the music-world with a Left Coast take from her current home in Portland. To get your fill of music nonsense and passionate rants about New Girl, follow her on Twitter. Meghan is now the 1 of the 2 better halves of Secret Rad Media!

I’ve got a new Wednesday recommendation for you all. To begin, when I try to explain an artist to someone as an introduction I usually use the “If so & so and so & so had a baby” analogy. That has always worked perfectly until this past Sunday night when I found myself in front of clean-cut and handsomely charming Andy Bothwell, aka – Astronautalis.

Opening for WHY? which I was set to attend that evening, I decided to throw some of his tunes on before the show, just to get acquainted. Now let me throw some names at you. First I heard the rising addictive hip-hop beats and vox of recent phenom, Macklemore. Perfect, I thought. Then I heard the grungy southern twang ala Lucero with the added smoothness of a one Caleb Followill. “This guy is all over the place;” I stumbled forward in confusion. More deep beats. Okay, he IS hip-hop. Now synth. Now he is Isaac Brock. Then, wait, did someone put on Billy Joel? What is happening?! And then my brain imploded.

When I came to, I found myself at the front of the stage of Portland’s Wonder Ballroom. Looking up at Astronautalis he explained how he used to be a ‘little British girl,’ later to amend “that was a lie, I was never a little British girl. Everything from here on out will be the truth.” The center crowd, slow to feel him out, finally broke into an all out dance party as he belted through what appeared to be his biggest hit – “Contrails” (which recorded, features Tegan Quin).

Astronautalis ft. Tegan Quin – Contrails

As sweaty bodies and exhausted breath overwhelmed the crowd, Andy asked us to name some topics for the backbone of his traditional freestyle session. Bukowski, drinking tea, being 21, The Walking Dead, redheads, an unavoidable sneak-in of C.S. Lewis, three or so more and he was off. I looked around the crowd as he spit out a slew of words, band building beats behind him, as if this was a poem years in the making. The closing of his set produced gaping jaws on faces of the crowd, as the percentage of bodies who had never heard of Astronautalis inevitably accepted they would be leaving their brains behind at Wonder ballroom this night.

This is a guest post from the inimitably impassionate Meghan. She’ll be bring us regular updates on the music-world with a Left Coast take from her current home in Portland. To get your fill of music nonsense and passionate rants about New Girl, follow her on Twitter.

Rather than an album review this week – I wanted to give more of an artist heads up. As Sasquatch Music Festival here in the Pacific Northwest quickly approaches, the months between February and May are, for me, spent mostly researching the lineup from top to bottom. Each year that I’ve attended, I’ve looked back upon the lineup a half year later to realize most of my current favorite artists had been on the bill and I had nothing of a clue. This year, I am specifically determined to prevent that from happening.

This is one of a series of regular posts from my dear friend Randy. Check back every Monday for a fresh look at what has taken over Randy’s litter box of a brain that week. For more timely ramblings from him head straight to the source, @RMChase3.

GREETINGS FROM THE LAND OF COLD MEDICINE AND TERRIBLE FAST FOOD! So before I get started I managed to get fantastically sick in a matter of 72 hours so any beautiful tangential sentences that may come please enjoy and quickly ignore. Also I swear to you reader that one of these here days I’ll get one of these damn things up in the morning (EST)